5 Things Wrong With Modern Gamers

How exactly do you classify yourself as a gamer? Is it because you play games all day everyday or is it because you play FIFA every second day or so. It’s a tough thing to categorise, but one thing is certain: there are a lot of “modern” gamers. A modern gamer, I believe, is someone that hasn’t been around when the early stages of gaming happened. Not exactly the origin of gaming (you have to be an extremely old bastard for that to be the case), but rather the stage where gaming became noticeable enough that it could support its own weight. If you want a certain age range then I guess someone in their teens or early twenties can be considered a modern gamer.

Now, there’s something I’ve been noticing recently when it came to my favourite hobby. More and more people are slowly starting to ruin it. These people are almost always (yep you guessed it) modern gamers. I’m becoming more and more frustrated by the day when I see a large amount of people just bashing gaming into a pulp. It’s almost ridiculous how these people behave sometimes.

Without further ado, here are the things that I think is wrong with a modern gamer:

1. Way Too Spoiled

A few years ago I almost never had the means to buy my games. I either had to work my fingers to the bone or sell stuff that I really didn’t want to sell in order to get the games I wanted. You know what that made me? Appreciative, that’s what. Buying a game yourself with your own well earned money is an experience in itself. When you finally, after a long struggle, get the game you desired then you will play the everlasting shit out of it. That’s almost a fact. You will find all the secrets, do all the activities, finish all the challenges, do all the side-missions and everything that you can possibly do in that game. You will make that game worth every cent and that’s for damn sure.

In recent times, games have become much more accessible and easy to buy. While I approve of what Valve is doing with Steam, I don’t agree with just flogging games off for next to nothing. You might be raging through the rafters right now because I said that, but hear me out. Yes, cheap games are great and it’s always nice to pick up a good deal, but there can be too much of a good thing. If people buy twenty to thirty games for next to nothing, you can almost guess what would happen next. Those games will be there for them to play and will either never even be played or they will be played just for a few hours.

I’ve seen a ton of negative comments for games where the person hardly even played the game at all. One guy quit on The Witcher 2 because he couldn’t figure out the difference between a regular sword and a silver one. Now that guy is of the opinion that Witcher 2 is an absolutely shit game and for what? Because he couldn’t be patient enough to just figure out one thing. Gamers of today fly through games. In open-world games they only do the story missions and we all know that most of the fun lies in the messing around and doing side-activities.

We are too spoiled and that can potentially make us sour and negative towards everything.

2. Judges A Game Based On Its Fanbase

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear Halo or Call of Duty? If you’re in the majority you might say little kids trying to have sex with your mother. The thing about these games is that they are solid games in their own right, but they will be mercilessly bashed and come under ridiculous scrutiny because of some sour apples among their fanbase. It pisses me off because people will hate a game to no end without even playing the damn thing for themselves. It’s unjustified hatred and that’s the worst kind. If you play a game without any prejudice before hand and you hate it then you have reason enough, but just hating it because you heard about some guy that got sworn at by a twelve-year old is just stupid and unfounded.

We need to let go of this petty branding that we do to most games. Not everyone is a cunt on Call of Duty. Not everyone on Halo 4 is going through puberty. Play the game yourself and then decide that it’s worth it for you to go to such an extreme that you actively and verbally hate it on any opportunity you get.

Not all Counter-Strike players like to suck penis. I’m kidding, put down the torch.

3. Thinks Their Opinion Is The Only Right One

My God has this become apparent to me this past year. Gamers of nowadays will sit at their computer, get their huge, throbbing opinion out on the desk and start shoving it down people’s throats. If you so much as say the smallest thing that doesn’t agree with their opinion then they will go on a murderous rampage. Look, it’s great to have an opinion about something. We all have our own little opinions. But ask yourself this, is it worth the trouble to belittle and humiliate other people because you don’t like something they’re saying. Sure, if that person is saying something idiotic or ridiculous then you have permission to put them in their place. But when you cuss someone out and call them a retarded faggot (I hate that word) because you liked a game they hated is something you just do not do.

You might voice your disagreement, but respect the other person’s choice at least. Nothing you will say will rid them of their opinion so it’s not even remotely worth it to type out 3000 word essays telling someone to go fuck themselves and agree with your thoughts. Nobody that liked a certain game has ever said to themselves, “hmmm this guy’s long message might be right. Okay I hate that game now”.

Nobody.

4. Hates Because Hate Is Cool

Otherwise known as the “jumping on the bandwagon” effect. It might be popular opinion that a game is a piece of shit, but it can still be pretty good to you. Just look at Medal of Honor: Warfighter for example. Prior to its release everyone that could use a website’s comments section said that the game will be a piece of dog turd. It was branded as just another military shooter and extremely generic. Before it even released. It could have been the cure for cancer and nobody would have taken it seriously. That’s the bandwagon effect in its most rawest form. It was popular opinion that the game will fail to be anything great.

Everyone just started magically having the opinion too because it was the cool thing to do. If you said that the game looks kind of cool then you would have been taken to the butchers and cut up into little pieces. Like the second point on this list says: play the damn game for yourself before you slaughter it. You might end up enjoying it.

5. Expectations Are Astronomical

Not every game can be the new Half-Life or Legend of Zelda. Make peace with that. A game can certainly strive to be amazing, but most of what we get isn’t that amazing that the sky will open up and rain chocolate and unicorns. There were a lot of games that were made on a budget that I thoroughly enjoyed. I went in not expecting the best and I got sufficient entertainment out of it. Some even ended up being amazing. The newest thing that really pisses me off is the expectation that Assassin’s Creed III would be so amazing that your balls would explode. What we got was a solid and enjoyable game no matter how you played it. I was legit confused as to why so many people are of the opinion that it’s a horrible game. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the idea.

Then I started reading the comments in more detail. There was a trend among the people that hated the game and that was that AC III was supposed to be the best game this year. No it wasn’t supposed to. People expected way too much from AC III and in the end it couldn’t have possibly lived up to the unrealistically high expectations that some people had.

We need to keep our expectations low for every game I think. Not every game can be amazing. There are almost always limitations involved in the creating of a game. Even those awful movie license games had no choice but to be rushed and simplified because some corporate asshole said so. Don’t think every game will be the second coming of Christ and you might find yourself happier.

In Conclusion

I made this list because I just can’t handle all the negativity in gaming these days. Almost everything I see is negative. It’s either someone commenting hateful words towards me or people hating games for totally unjustifiable reasons. Gaming shouldn’t be negative. It’s an entertaining art form made to make you happy.

Go play your games and enjoy them for a change. Don’t shit in your pants because the main character’s eyebrow moved 2 centimetres to the left instead of the right.

Ah man! This is THE BEST right up I have ever read. Props to you man. And thank you for putting this out there.

http://www.facebook.com/KingCarloIII Carlo Serafino

Agreed. Marko, you write awesome articles man =)

CataclysmicDawn

So much hate from eGamer over the past few days XD

Also, I’d like to add that number 1 can be attributed to gamers having a hoarding mentality, ie. this is cheap, must get it, want, want, want. Instead of just getting what they want. For example, this year’s Steam Summer Sale ended with me buying only 2 games; KoTOR and Fallout 3 GOTY Edition. And I’ve enjoyed the hell out of one of those and the other didn’t work.

And the bandwagon is a pain when even reviewers start to follow it.

Michael Matusowsky

they see the games rollin’ they hating. Patrolling thr nets cuz they be brown and nerdy! (hope this wasn’t racist. Apologies if you guys did find it racist).

http://www.facebook.com/daryl.eksteen Daryl Eksteen

You have just explained how people think in general these days and not just about games….not everyone but a lot!

Richard Dubbeld

nice list, enjoyed reading it.

am currently in love with Halo 4 and am taking my time with it, letting all of it soak into me like some sort of …. super sponge when it meets water…. i dunno, i’m crap at metaphors

Michael Matusowsky

I had a really long response and then my browser crashed and the response disappeared. The tl:dr of it was that it’s developers who steer our perception of a game before it gets released (dev diaries, gameplay trailers etc) so if they hype up the game themselves to be “game of the year” material and it turns out to be flop of the year, they shouldn’t NOT expect a monumental backlash from the gaming community. You can’t hype a. Ungee jump for a kid saying it drops 500 meters when in reality it only drops 100m. Sorry, you just can’t.

http://egamer.co.za/author/cavie Caveshen “CaViE” Rajman

In that same respect they have to sell their games. Glomail and Verimark produce utter garbage but they market it well enough to make you want it. Publishers require developers to create games that can be sold. The best way to sell a game? Get people excited about it. To blame them because you allowed yourself to be goaded into excitement is a bit much. I won’t say they’re not to blame either but again, they have a product to sell. Do you walk up to every person who ripped you off and slit their necks open? Of course not. But it’s okay when it’s a developer of a game, apparently.

http://egamer.co.za/ Azhar Amien

That’s true Cavie, but I think you’re dancing around a bit when it comes to advertising, because it’s a bit complex. Firstly, we naturally need to differentiate between developers just hyping up, as is usual advertising stuff, and actual promises about content and what the game will deliver.

An example of the former would be “Revolutionary military combat that is realistic and visceral” – that’s obviously just a puff. But actual promises would be “The game will have more than one ending.”

For the latter, we can blame them completely and knock down their doors when they don’t deliver. But if we get goaded by simple puffs and advertising, then it’s our faults yes.

http://egamer.co.za/author/cavie Caveshen “CaViE” Rajman

Fuck you, I still think Halo’s shit. <3

Agreed, though. On every point and then some. I think this summer of games especially has brought out the immature, impossible to please, sort of stereotypical uber-gamer that sits on a pedestal of superiority cuddling their Dishonored plushy while judging every other game that happens by.

http://twitter.com/greatwyt Oethman Khan

haters gonna hate. besides you love Mass Effect. something aint right with you

sage of the six paths

You can get Dishonored plushies?! Where?!

http://www.facebook.com/KingCarloIII Carlo Serafino

I too would like to know where you could get a plushy Corvo that could come to life any second and kill you…
I guess I read too many Goosebumps books as a kid =P

http://egamer.co.za/ Azhar Amien

Agreed with almost every point except for 5. I only find it to be wrong in the scenarios you mentioned, and when the expectation is unfair. However, for something like Assassin’s Creed, when we had ACII and arguably Brotherhood to set the standard, it’s very realistic and reasonable to want ACIII to be as good if not better than ACII.

After all, a sequel by default is meant to aspire to trump what came before it.

As for point 1, I’m a little unsure what your main direction is with your argument. Is it that we’re too spoiled for choice? That getting many games is bad? I mean, I too constantly sell my games and other things I treasure in order to keep affording new games and other hobbies, so I fully understand the need to enjoy what you buy. For example, back when Force Unleashed 1 came out, despite knowing fully of its faults and flaws, I didn’t want to damn the game for them despite people telling me otherwise, just because I bought it. I think that’s also dangerous. But I was like 15 back then, so yeah. Now, because of my vocal nature, and because I’ve gone older and more experienced, and games are even harder to get since it’s all my own money, my reactions are very different if I bought something and don’t end up happy with it.

There’s a point where you also need to be realistic, and yeah as much as I enjoyed Force Unleashed 1 and wanted to ignore its faults, it’s never something I’d want to splash R600 on again. Nothing quite like the disappointment of spending money on something you’re not happy with.

I don’t think keeping our expectations low is 100% the necessary thing to do. I mean, I try to keep my expectations as low as possible, or prefer to not have them at all, even for games I’m excited about, i.e Hitman. I’ll go into it with a clean slate. But sometimes we’re human, and if Game Number 1 is great, Game Number 2 is better, then it’s entirely realistic, logical and fair to want or expect Game Number 3 to be the best.

Michael Matusowsky

But you’re like 16 now, big difference from 15 ;D?

I am and always have been lf the opinion, if the game costs more than R350, it’s too expensive. NO GAME, no matter how engaging/good it is will ever be worth more than R350. NONE. Unless it comes with exclusive contents and what not.

http://egamer.co.za/ Azhar Amien

Har-Har but if I was 15 in 2008, and 16 in 2012, then shit is MESSED UP. I’m 19 though :P

Hmm, I don’t hold the same opinion, but I guess you’re strictly a PC gamer then?

http://www.facebook.com/brendon.bosch Brendon Bosch

Thanx dude. I needed that. Point number 2 is me and you mentioned the games. I`ll try to change i promise

http://za.movember.com/mospace/3168229 Wayne Bossenger

Fantastic read! 100% agree! people need to chill out and enjoy games.

I think these points, although gamer specific, work pretty much everywhere nowadays. I mean, this generation in general is pretty spoilt for choice, and they watch random idiotic reality shows on mtv (where did the music go) which is probably where those agro tendencies sprout from…
there’s way too many high-and-mighty-people in this world that have an opinion that they MUST shove down our throats…

sage of the six paths

Interesting article, I won’t elaborate.
#1 and 5 are the ones I most agree with. I always prioritize the games I’ll get each year and plan according to that, for the games that I don’t get I normally borrow them from AG ad Azhar if they get them so I’m really disappointed or care i the end.

http://www.facebook.com/KingCarloIII Carlo Serafino

Regarding point 1, another things about that:

I was at the midnight release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II and I was so surprised, firstly by all the school teens there and secondly that they were all buying Care Packages and I thought to myself, Wow. I wonder if their parents know they’re buying a grand a half worth of stuff for a game for a kid writing exams at this point. And then I though, wow I’m much too poor myself to even buy the regular game (I got one as a gift by the way =P).
So that was my 2 cents worth on why gamers are spoiled specific to this example (5 cents? 10 cents? I forget what our minimum currency is x_x)

http://www.facebook.com/people/Sahil-Lala/577012665 Sahil Lala

Epic article is epic!

http://www.facebook.com/nadine.franzsen Nadine Franzsen

Really good article. With regards to your last point on expectations, the reason I enjoy a lot of games that others think are crappy is because I play them without listening to what others say. This is not always the case, but mostly. For example AC3. I’ve read the headings of articles, AC3 is the biggest let-down or whatever that heading said here. I simply dont read it, because that is that 1 person’s opinion. Borderlands is apparently an amazing game but I dont like it at all. So it goes to show that 1 person’s opinion of a game does not make the game horrible for others.

http://www.facebook.com/nadine.franzsen Nadine Franzsen

And another thing about the modern gamer, the internet destroys our pure, unbiased opinion of a game. Before I had internet, or read gaming news and belonged to a forum. Every game I played, no matter if it wasnt THAT much fun, was worth my time. I would play the game to the end to finish the story, and not be left with questions. I had no other opinions of the game from strangers. Modern gamers know eveything about a game before they even play it. Games are supposed to be surprising, it should make us discover everything and figure out whats going on on our own. Dont tell us everything before.

Good article. I remember someone once said that Demon’s Souls was crap, purely because they couldn’t play it. Thankfully, I didn’t listen to that fool.

Curt John

Brilliant post, I agree highly with all your points.

When it comes down to it, the biggest problem with gaming these days is anyone not born in the 80’s. Totally.
That, and good old internet anonymity practically begging people to be dickbags to each other on every article about gaming anywhere.
Except here, apparently. Here people are pretty chill.
Over-saturation of the market and previews/reviews doesn’t help, but you can avoid most of this one way or another.
Personally, I’m perfectly happy sticking to my single player and couch multiplayer, and enjoying whatever crap I want, thank you.

http://www.facebook.com/nanonyous Theo Lubbe

1. Gamers are not too spoiled. There are simply more idiots that are more capable of voicing their idiotic opinions on games they didn’t play much of.

I can guarantee, seeing as I’ve been gaming since I was 3, that there have always been people out there that will berate a game they’ve hardly played despite having to sell a kidney to afford it and the system it ran on. The difference was that 10+ years ago you simply wouldn’t find forums of kids complaining about it, because kids were using their precious time on daddy’s dialup to download porn, not complain about vidyas.

2. Has also existed since the days of yore where people would berate others for playing a certain game at an arcade. Again, the difference is in the ability for people to communicate these days.

And it’s because of that communication that such opinions are often shown to be true to a pretty large extent. I stopped playing DotA on the South African Twilight server years ago because the community consisted almost exclusively of assholes. assholes that were able to play in higher ranked games where only those that have spent more time studying the game’s mechanics than for their matric exams would join games intended for those that don’t know what they’re doing yet and bash those people for being a ‘fucking noob’ on the other team. There were very few people to play with along the bottom rungs that weren’t assholes.

Does that mean all DotA players everywhere are assholes? No, definitely not. I recently played some DotA2 and, unsurprisingly, with the matchmaking system being what it is I was playing primarily with other people that also weren’t quite sure of what they were doing, so everyone was equally noobish and there was one out of maybe a hundred different people I encountered that was being a dick.

That arcade in that town over there is full of assholes. This arcade in this town over here isn’t. That’s what it boils down to.

3. This is common of people in general these days, not just ‘modern gamers’. Look at Twilight, as an example. I’ve seen enough footage from the first film to tell that it’s a steaming pile of shit purely based on the acting, costume design and processing applied to the footage. PEOPLE ARE NOT FUCKING GREEN. STOP MAKING THEM FUCKING GREEN. Unless they’re Hulk.

4. Again common of people in general these days. Twilight films, Twilight books, 50 Shades of Gray, particular TV shows, etc.

5. Marketing/advertising and producers for games are largely to blame for this. Before Dishonored came out, it was claimed that one would have epic freedom of choice that would completely change how the game panned out. What happened? You could either kill someone or have them removed from the game by some other means. You got two endings.

Big, fucking, whoop.

Then again, the game itself was still enjoyable enough to me since it presented a fluid, well-styled gameplay experience, and did things at least a bit differently.

Then you get a game like NFS:Hot Pursuit. There was no particular warning of the fact there would be no manual transmission, that one couldn’t turn off any of the assists, that one couldn’t turn off the godawful action cams nor the automatic driving and drifting. What was promised was essentially a return of Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit.

Instead we got Need for Burnout: Clone Pursuit.

I approach each game as it comes without reading preview crap online specifically because of this kind of bullshit anymore. I read the previews that go into details after I’ve played the games.

If companies could stop promising the world and delivering a small, barren, uninhabited island off the coast of Guatamala, I think we’d see an insane decline in how much people bitch and moan about games post-release, let alone pre-release.

Better yet, the companies involved should deliver more than they promised. Sure, testers and others are going to leak information on cool features, but don’t promise those features and for the sake of all the Holy Mother Mary of Fucks, don’t let advertising/marketing companies fucking blow out of proportion just how totally (not) fucking awesome those features are(n’t) going to be.